2005 Man Booker Prize Winner Predictions

The winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize will be announced on Monday, October 10th, 2005 in a televised ceremony in the U.K.

This year, the TurboBookSnob is offering two predictions for the winner of the prize, one based on statistical analysis and one based on who she believes should win the prize.

The TurboBookSnob finds it interesting that the announcement of the Nobel Prize for Literature has been postponed until October 13th, and believes that if Kazuo Ishiguro does not win the Booker Prize, the Nobel committee will reward him with their prize. There has been historical precedent for this - both V.S. Naipaul and J.M. Coetzee won the Nobel Prizee for Literature shortly after being skipped over by the Booker Prize judges.

2005 Winner Predictions
Statistical Prediction
	On Beauty by Zadie Smith Published by Hamish Hamilton UK Publication Date: 9/1/05 This novel is a modern-day take on Howard's End by E.M. Forster, and is Smith's most fully-realized work to date. She won critical acclaim, and the Guardian First Novel award in 2000 for her first novel, White Teeth, and was named on of Granta's Best Young British Novelists in 2003. Smith's "buzz" factor, calculated by the number of Google hits for the novel, tripled in size in the two weeks leading up to the announcement of the Booker Prize.
TurboBookSnob Prediction
	Arthur & George by Julian Barnes Published by Jonathan Cape UK Publication Date: 7/7/05 The author's fictionalized account of a true incident that occured between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and an obscure solicitor from Staffordshire is a bit of a departure for Julian Barnes, who tends to write satirical, witty, tongue-in-cheek novels such as England! England! The novel is perfection - masterly command of plot, elegant language, and sympathetic well-drawn characters. The judges this year, headed by John Sutherland, appear to be playing it safe, and the TurboBookSnob believes, will reward Barnes for this masterly work.